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I'm a little disturbed at the idea that "dedicated mother" automatically means "quit your job and don't have a career."

Don't any of you know any women with careers who also happen to love their kids very much?

I think Fleur would probably stay home when her children are very young. (What kind of maternity leave is normal in the wizarding world, I wonder?) But I also don't see her as necessarily the sort of woman who'd be happy being a stay-at-home mom.

I think she's intelligent and ambitious, and not so self-sacrificing that she'd put all her ambitions aside just to devote herself entirely to her children. She has a huge extended family, after all, so childcare shouldn't really be a problem.

That's true about Fleur. She is intelligent and ambitious but she does seem the one to put her family over her ambitions. We see in DH that she did care a lot of her family and those she loves. Harry himself said that she reminded her so much of Mrs. Weasley and if its true that she is like Mrs. Weasley, then she would stay home to take care of her family. Of course, she doesn't have as many kids as Molly but you never know. She could have more.

I wonder, do you think Fleur ever took her career at Gringott's any more serious than part time, or do you think she became a full-time mother after the birth of her children? What kind of mother do you see Fleur as?

Didn't the books say at one time that Fleur took the job to improve her English? From that aspect I don't see her as serious about a carreer at Gringots. I don't recall any mention of her having specific carreer ambitions. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that one.

I think that Fleur would be a stay at home Molly Weasley type of mother. She does show that side while she is accomodating all of the extra people at the cottage, but I also think that after having been through the war and losing many people close to her that she would want to stay at home with her children. She was definitely protective of her sister before the war and I think that after it she would be that much more determined to keep a close eye on her family as much as possible. I can see her becoming slightly overprotective and maybe a little bit smothering, but who could blame her after all she and her family have been through?

I think that Fleur is like Molly in that she'd be a very loving and caring mother. I certainly think that she would stay home while her children are young. But as Inverarity said, being a good, dedicated mother definitely doesn't mean having no ambitions whatsoever!

Fleur got married and had kids very young, and say her kids were born two years apart, starting with Victoire two years after the war, then they would all be at Hogwarts by 17 years after the war - and Fleur would still be under 40! She'd have many years ahead of her, and I don't think she'd be content to sit around cooking and cleaning. She may go back to work somewhere (Gringotts never did seem to be a very important job to her... 'practicing English' was just a reason to be near Bill ), but I can't see her being happy to work for someone else in an office job or something... so, what I imagine her to do is perhaps start her own business. I can see her going into fashion design, having decided that Gladrags is too cheap and Madam Malkin's too drab... what do you think? Or else something food-related - opening a cafe selling French treats, maybe, or writing cookbooks, or making fancy cakes. I don't know. But I can really imagine her creating some kind of independent venture relating to her interests and talents. She could work from home and then she'd be able to start before Louis had started school.

In general, accents should not be overdone. Don't try to write every word spelled phonetically the way you think the person would say it. Pick a few words to consistently spell a certain way, and mention that the character has an accent, and your readers will mentally "read" her dialog with the appropriate accent.

For Fleur (or anyone else with a heavy French accent), substituting "z" for "th" in words like "the," "they," "than," etc., and an occasional "this" => "zees" is sufficient.

When she ees speekeeng, don' trai too write 'er talkeeng leek zees, and don't have her insert French phrases into every line of dialog.

Take a look at Chapter 25: Shell Cottage in Deathly Hollows for an example of how Rowling writes Fleur's dialog:

"But what do you mean? Of course you must not leave, you are safe 'ere!"

So, au revoir, Mr. Ollivander. And I wonder whezzer you could oblige me by delivering a package to Bill's Auntie Muriel? I never returned 'er tiara."

So, basically she drops 'h's at the beginning of words, and she substitutes 'z' for 'th.' Also note that her syntax is just a little bit different from a native English speaker's. She's fluent and speaks in grammatically correct English, but her expressions -- "I do not forget," "Of course you must not leave," etc. -- sound just a little bit unnatural. This is because the tenses she uses aren't quite right for conversational English, and because she doesn't use contractions as much as a native speaker would. (A native speaker would probably have said, "Of course you shouldn't leave, you're safe here," and "I haven't forgotten.")

For my NEWT Chatacter class, we were asked to each come up with five words that describe our characters, and I though it would make for an excellent discussion on the threads. Her are the ones I came up with for Fleur Delacour.

Adaptable: Even though Fleur seemed to complain about Hogwarts every other sentence on her first trip there, she did a remarkable job of adapting to the new environment. She became extremely social and was able to achieve the level of popularity she probably held during her first six years at Beauxbatons. Even after the Tri-Wizard Tournament was over, she still returned to England, first to work, then to marry, and then to live out the rest of her life.

In life itself, Fleur showed she can adapt to just about anything. She came to England a shallow, teenage girl, a person she adopted most likely because it was what got her ahead at Beauxbatons. But as the series moved on, she adapted to become a soldier in the Second War, a caretaker for the injured, and then a wife and a mother of three. When reading GOF, Fleur was the last person I believed would ever settle into a domestic life, but look at her.

Fleur seems like the type of person who can mold herself to fit into any environment.

Charming: I'm not quite sure how much of this is just due to her veela blood, but Fleur has a very charming personality to her. She is able to get both teachers and boys completely under her thumb. Although she seems to have no ability to use this towards girls, I doubt this counts. Teenage girls all seem to secretly hate one another, even when they have no reason to.

Honest: For better or worse, Fleur is honest to a fault. While at the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she never kept her opinions to herself about how she believed Hogwarts was so inefficient to the Beauxbatons palace. This did not earn her a lot of friends in this way, but at least no one could accuse her of being two-faced.

Even after she was done with school, she kept her honest opinionated fully alive and well, even though the Weasley's really didn't care for that nature. But later, it came to serve in her favor, for her in-laws learned that Fleur's words could always be taken at face value, no matter what it was she said.

Even though her honest nature did not always serve her with certain people, it made her someone who could always be trusted with her words.

Loyal: When Fleur is first introduced in the series, she is thought of as a very selfish person, and loyal would be one of the last words people would think to describe her. But once she chooses to stand by Bill, even after he is attacked by a werewolf and he loses his good looks, Fleur still chooses to become his wife.

During the war, she stands loyal to the cause of fighting Voldemort, even when it makes her wedding a terrifying affair and she and her husband are forced to go into hiding. Still, she remains loyal to the Order and tends to their injured, doing whatever she can to help the cause in her own way. A selfish person would not make sacrifices in such a way.

Worldly: The last word that could ever be used to describe Fleur would be naive. She has been all around the world, and is one who knows the true nature of all human beings. She does not shy away from these truths, and can almost be described as having a hardened strength to her.

Do you agree or disagree with this assesment? What words would you use to describe Fleur and why?